Taste of the Wild Ancient Prairie review

Taste of the Wild · Ancient Prairie · Dry food · All life stages

94 / 100Our label score

★★★★½4.5 of 5 stars, from the score

32%Crude protein (min)

445kcal per cup

1FDA recall event for the brand

On the facts printed on its own label, Taste of the Wild Ancient Prairie scores 94 out of 100 on our rubric: top of the range we have scored. The panel opens with Water Buffalo, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 32% crude protein it ranks 1 of the 21 Taste of the Wild recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 18%.

At 445 kcal a cup it is calorie dense: small measuring errors become extra meals over a month, so this is a food to weigh rather than eyeball. Its adequacy claim rests on formulation: balanced on paper against the AAFCO nutrient profiles rather than fed to dogs in a trial. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 56 ingredient lines. 8 of them are animal source lines and 11 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 6, so 5 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. Salt appears at line 20 of 56: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 36; the 21 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

The label facts

Maker	Diamond Pet Foods
Format	Dry food
Life stage	All life stages
Full ingredient list, in label order	Water Buffalo Pork Chicken Meal Grain Sorghum Millet Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols) Cracked Pearled Barley Dried Yeast Roasted Bison Roasted Venison Natural Flavor Flaxseed Beef Quinoa Chia Seed Dried Tomato Pomace Salmon Oil (a source of DHA) Dicalcium Phosphate Calcium Carbonate Salt Potassium Chloride DL-Methionine Choline Chloride Taurine Dried Chicory Root Tomatoes Blueberries Raspberries Yucca Schidigera Extract L-Carnitine Dried Lactobacillus Plantarum Fermentation Product Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product Dried Bifidobacterium Animalis Fermentation Product Vitamin E Supplement Iron Proteinate Zinc Proteinate Copper Proteinate Ferrous Sulfate Zinc Sulfate Manganese Sulfate Copper Sulfate Potassium Iodide Thiamine Mononitrate Manganese Proteinate Vitamin A Supplement Biotin Niacin Calcium Pantothenate Sodium Selenite Pyridoxine Hydrochloride Vitamin B12 Supplement Riboflavin Vitamin D3 Supplement Folic Acid
Guaranteed analysis	Crude protein (min) 32% · crude fat (min) 18% · crude fibre (max) 3% · moisture (max) 10%
Dry matter reading	With the water taken out, the same analysis reads 35.6% protein and 20% fat. Dry matter is how wet and dry foods can be compared fairly.
Calories	3,920 kcal/kg, 445 kcal/cup, as labelled
AAFCO adequacy	Calorie Count Calorie Content 3,920 kcal/kg (445 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy AAFCO and Sizes AAFCO Statement Taste of the Wild Ancient Prairie Canine Recipe with Roasted Bison & Roasted Venison is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for All Life Stages, including growth of large size dogs (70 lb. or more as an adult).
Price	Not listed. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing, and we had not for this recipe when the label was read.

How the score breaks down

Signal	Points	What the label shows
First ingredient	20 / 20	Water Buffalo, a named whole animal protein, opens the panel.
Animal protein depth, first 10 ingredients	15 / 15	6 of the first ten ingredients are named animal ingredients.
Protein level for the life stage	15 / 15	Crude protein reads 32% as labelled, read against the all life stages stage the label claims.
Fat level fit	10 / 10	Crude fat reads 18% as labelled.
Whole foods versus filler-flagged ingredients	10 / 10	None of the rubric's flagged ingredients appears in the first ten.
Artificial colours and preservatives	10 / 10	No artificial colours, colour-retention chemicals or artificial preservatives appear in the panel.
AAFCO adequacy basis	8 / 10	Formulated to meet AAFCO profiles for all life stages, including growth of large size dogs.
FDA recall history	6 / 10	One FDA posted dog food recall event found for the brand in our November 2026 check.
Price tier	Not scored	Not scored in this round. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing.
Total	94 / 100	Scaled from 94 of 100 available points. Stars are the score divided by 20, rounded to the nearest half. The method is published in full on the dog food hub.

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it.

Water Buffalo. Water Buffalo is the base of a wet food. A wet panel is mostly water by design, which is why its analysis is read on a dry matter basis.
Pork. Pork is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
Chicken Meal. Chicken Meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
Grain Sorghum. Grain Sorghum is a plant ingredient, bringing energy, fibre or plant protein to the panel.
Millet. Millet is a plant ingredient, bringing energy, fibre or plant protein to the panel.
Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols). Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols) is rendered fat from the named source. Fat is the densest energy in the recipe and carries much of its flavour.
Cracked Pearled Barley. Cracked Pearled Barley is a whole grain rich in beta glucan fibre, which feeds gut bacteria and slows digestion.
Dried Yeast. Dried Yeast sits on the panel as a functional ingredient: a binder, supplement or processing aid rather than a nutrient base.
Roasted Bison. Roasted Bison is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
Roasted Venison. Roasted Venison is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.

Who it suits

Active, lean dogs that burn through protein and hold weight easily
Homes that want one bag to cover a puppy and an adult dog together
Owners who want a named whole meat, not a meal or a plant, at the top of the panel

Who should skip it

Dogs that gain weight easily, unless every portion is weighed
Owners who specifically want a food proven in feeding trials rather than by formulation

The brand's recall record

2012: FDA records list a Salmonella recall of dry dog foods made by Diamond Pet Foods (Schell and Kampeter), the manufacturer of this brand, covering production from that period.

The 2012 event sits with the manufacturer rather than this recipe, and it is old. We count it because quality systems belong to the maker, and we label it as a manufacturer event so readers can weigh it fairly.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Taste of the Wild recipes we scored

Recipe	Score / 100	Protein	Format
Ancient Wetlands	94	32%	Dry food
High Prairie	93	32%	Dry food
Wetlands	93	32%	Dry food
High Prairie Puppy	91	28%	Dry food
High Prairie Wet	91	8%	Wet food
Pacific Stream Wet	91	7.5%	Wet food
Southwest Canyon Wet	91	9%	Wet food
Wetlands Wet	91	8%	Wet food
Appalachian Valley Small Breed	90	32%	Dry food
Ancient Stream	89	30%	Dry food
PREY Turkey Limited Ingredient	89	30%	Dry food
Southwest Canyon	88	29%	Dry food

Those are the twelve highest scoring of the 20 other Taste of the Wild recipes we scored. The full comparison, flagship review included, is on the Taste of the Wild brand review.

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Dog's weight	Daily energy	Of this recipe, at 445 kcal a cup
3 kg	about 255 kcal	about 0.6 cups
10 kg	about 630 kcal	about 1.4 cups
20 kg	about 1,059 kcal	about 2.4 cups
30 kg	about 1,436 kcal	about 3.2 cups

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.

Taste of the Wild Ancient Prairie: our recipe review